The National Curriculum - Rainbow Serpents and other things.

[Nankervis brothers]

Re: Religious lessons in State Schools. I don't get it.

Big Footy. The new Storm Front.

 

[medusala]

Re: Religious lessons in State Schools. I don't get it.

A six year old study that focuses on remote communities.

You think Gillard has sorted it now?

 

[GeorgeGrljusich]

Re: Religious lessons in State Schools. I don't get it.

You think Gillard has sorted it now?

You think anyone has got it sorted now?

I don't.

The shame is that we are talking about real people. Not some political pawn.

 

[AndSmithMustScore]

Re: Religious lessons in State Schools. I don't get it.

Big Footy. The new Storm Front.

Someone used that line back in 2004.

Twas a fail then, still is.

 

[btdg]

Re: Religious lessons in State Schools. I don't get it.

Then don't those cultures have to tolerate my opinion that they're shit?

Or does it only go one way?

And that's assuming you can teach tolerance in the first place. I went through Australia's best state school - I enjoy some other cultures, tolerate some and downright loathe others. Did our school brainwashing tolerance system fail?

Of course they have to tolerate your opinion that they're shit. Don't expect them to give you the time of day though. That's the whole point of multiculturalism - live and let live.

Can you pass comment on other cultures? Of course. To a certain extent they schould listen, too; just as Anglo people can learn from listening to other cultures that pass comment on us. Again, don't expect a response unless you've got pretty good reasons for feeling as you do.

 

[Black Ball]

Re: Religious lessons in State Schools. I don't get it.

Most aboriginal kids don't go to school mate.

Don't know about most but regretably too many don't.

 

[rick James]

Re: Religious lessons in State Schools. I don't get it.

Of course they have to tolerate your opinion that they're shit. Don't expect them to give you the time of day though. That's the whole point of multiculturalism - live and let live.

And my opinion is that multiculturalism is fine - but mass immigration is shit.

Being that we can not talk about immigration as a political issue in this country, as neither party wants to stop it and risk house prices falling - I choose to vent my frustration at the issue in the most drastic way to hopefully open some people up to the possibility that flooding our country with immigrants is setting us up for a big fall.

Can you pass comment on other cultures? Of course.

Well yes and no - its technically illegal for me to do so IF my opinion is negative. How many people call me a racist in this thread for stating my honest appraisal of other cultures? I'm sick of this "be positive!" attitude toward everything in society - some people just prefer to be honestly analytical. They're called racists and killjoys if anything that comes out of their mouth is negative. Shit, people are getting called racist on this site merely for questioning Australia's immigration policy. It's an absolute ****ing farce.

To a certain extent they schould listen, too; just as Anglo people can learn from listening to other cultures that pass comment on us. Again, don't expect a response unless you've got pretty good reasons for feeling as you do.

I know that what the Anglos did in conquering the world was pretty morally bankrupt - because they thought they were superior in every way, when the reality was tehy simply had a superior religion* and superior military.

*By superior, I mean that Anglicanism was the best religion for controlling the masses at the time. Which is the point of all religions.

 

[Wish Wellingtons]

Re: Religious lessons in State Schools. I don't get it.

yadda yadda yadda

I'm beginning to think that a literal interpretation of your signature is not that far-fetched...

 

[rick James]

Re: Religious lessons in State Schools. I don't get it.

I'm beginning to think that a literal interpretation of your signature is not that far-fetched...

And so you should.

I am a Fascist and a Western Imperialist.

 

[Wahooti Fandango]

Re: Religious lessons in State Schools. I don't get it.

Have you actually read what he had to say about Aborigines?

Yeah, I overreacted.

I would be interested in the definition/meaning of science that forms the foundation of the national curriculum.

 

[Wish Wellingtons]

Re: Religious lessons in State Schools. I don't get it.

And so you should.

I am a Fascist and a Western Imperialist.

If by western imperialist means that you are not ashamed of your heritage you are not alone.

 

[rick James]

Re: Religious lessons in State Schools. I don't get it.

If by western imperialist means that you are not ashamed of your heritage you are not alone.

No I mean I support Western governments and armies dominating poorer countries so that I can live in relative luxury.

 

[Chief]

You don't need that to live in relative luxury. It is just your personal preference. What this says about you personally is up to people to decide for themselves.

 

[Monniehawk]

Aboriginality

If by western imperialist means that you are not ashamed of your heritage you are not alone.

I know a few aboriginals who are proud of their heritage, too.
Everyone is prejudiced. It is how we manage it that determines whether we will take the next step on to bigotry.

 

[btdg]

To try and put this thread on-topic (seeing as how it started within another thread and got spun off, and never actually discussed the curriculum itself), its worth noting that there are actually several national curriculums that will exist (courtest of a crikey article I can't be bothered finding again).

There is the national curriculum that the politicians want - the one they trumpet to the media. The one that is apparently totally revolutionary because it includes Grammar and History (as an English/Hums teacher I was mystified to learn that what I've been teaching wasn't those things).

Then there is the national curriculum that is in the document, carefully prepared by university scholars who are totally up to date in the latest educational theory, but not actually around to implement it in schools.

What is important is how it actually gets implemented in schools. In most cases, there will be a core group of talented and experienced teachers, who are very good at what they do. Those teachers will look at their current practice, compare it to the new curriculum, and make as few changes as possible while still meeting the legislative requirements and the desired objectives of the school.

Finally, you'll get the new teachers coming through, who know nothing else, and treat it as the gospel. They'll share ideas with the oldies, leading to a compromise that sits somewhere in the middle.

In 5 years time, we'll have a new government with a new education minister who wants to make their mark. They'll decide to overhaul the national curriculum, change the history stuff and make sure we do more grammar and spelling (because that's what is really important), and everyone will kick up a fuss all over again. The teachers will keep teaching. The principals will keep doing their job. The students will keep learning. And politicians will still use something they barely understand to score cheap and manipulative political points.

Who benefits from this? Mainly the textbook manufacturers, who can sell a whole stack more copies every time the curriculum changes (all those SOSE textbooks that got thrown out by VELS are about to be joined by a heap of Humanities textbooks once the new curriculum comes in). University academics who get paid big bucks to write the stuff. And that is about it. The actual education system will barely change, and by the time the effects are digested for remote indigenous schools, Western Suburbs schools full of immigrants, or elite inner-city selective schools, the changes will be so small as to be pointless.

 

[mantis]

Re: Religious lessons in State Schools. I don't get it.

Big Footy. The new Storm Front.

Glad someone else has noticed that.

 

[GeorgeGrljusich]

Re: Religious lessons in State Schools. I don't get it.

Glad someone else has noticed that.

Oh for christs sake.
I am the biggest pinko leftie that you could find.
But that is a prepostorous statement

 

[SweetLeftFoot]

Re: Religious lessons in State Schools. I don't get it.

Agreed. By the time Europeans arrived in Australia the aboriginal achievement list was:

Boomerang - curved stick
Didgeridoo - hollow stick
speak - stick with a rock on the end of it

Yeah really scientific, those noble savages.

Managing to survive on the driest most inhospitable continent outside of Antarctica is an achievement in itself IMO.

 

[BigBadCam]

Go to any museum in East and SE Asia, and the Aboriginals never got past the Asians of 7000 years ago. Pottery, art - everything was miles ahead of anything the Aboriginals ever achieved. We need to understand our country's history, but it should be a minor field of study for kids in school. The focus of historical study should be after the settlement of Australia by Europeans.

 

[btdg]

Go to any museum in East and SE Asia, and the Aboriginals never got past the Asians of 7000 years ago. Pottery, art - everything was miles ahead of anything the Aboriginals ever achieved. We need to understand our country's history, but it should be a minor field of study for kids in school. The focus of historical study should be after the settlement of Australia by Europeans.

It is.

At present in Victoria, the secondary history curriculum involves:

- Year 7: Ancient cultures (Egypt, Rome, China, Greece, and maybe some prehistory and anything else that looks interesting)
- Year 8: Medievel (Western) history, with a bit of Japan thrown in
- Year 9: About 4 weeks on Indigenous Australian history. White australian history from invasion/colonisation to WWI
- year 10: 20th century history from WWI to the end of the Cold War

That will barely change. In format, the new national curriculum is almost identical.

what the new curriculum has asked is that for the modern history component, Indigenous perspectives be considered. How do indigenous australians view WWI and WWII? How do they view the Cold War era? Colonisation? Federation? The migration programs of the 1950s? That is also not new; in fact most units under the current curriculum would have a lesson or two investigating that perspective. One of the best ways to study history is to consider it from multiple perspectives, and that is a pretty reasonable way to do it.

Nothing much will change there, except that politicians will trump the new 'history' curriculum, and certain people will seize on another opportunity to attack indigenous australians.

 

[evo]

Seems like a good spread, btdg.

The only change to that I'd make would be in year 8 teaching some Near Eastern and Far Eastern medieval history.

 

[Richo83]

Exactly, I don't understand the fuss about indigenous history when it's barely taught in the first place.